1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to therapeutic body support pads and more particularly to an anatomically conformable mattress pad or overlay positionable atop a conventional mattress for enhanced body comfort for a recumbent person.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional mattresses are typically designed for the general public or typical users to provide a reasonable degree of comfort to a broad base range of people. Although it is well known that the comfort level is heightened to the extent that the mattress conforms to the individual curves of the human anatomy, nonetheless it is commercially impractical to accommodate this need for the mass media.
A number of prior art inventions have attempted, some perhaps successfully, to either provide an entirely new mattress or to provide a mattress pad fitted atop a conventional mattress which better accommodates the individual anatomical needs for those who wish to have a more individualized custom fitting body support in the recumbent position thereatop.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,901, Farley teaches an anatomically comfortable therapeutic mattress overlay which is intended to redistribute body weight away from prominent areas of the human body and also to support selected anatomical body portions. This overlay includes a substantially planar resilient member including selected reinforcements between side edges which facilitate rotating a patient while in the recumbent position. This pad also includes cutouts to define handle holds by which to grasp the resilient pad.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,564, Thomas teaches a therapeutic mattress having a resilient bottom mattress section and a top mattress section comprised of a plurality of interconnected top mattress sections. A plurality of parallel rows of stitching interconnect the top and bottom covers, intermediate stitching also interconnecting the top and bottom to define the parallel rows of rectangular tubes which are filled with a compacted fibrous resilient material.
Jacobson, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,283, teaches a mattress which conforms to a body profile by having flexible air-tight chambers which are interconnected to allow the transfer of air or fluid between two such chambers to facilitate body contour accommodation. The volume of air or fluid may be adjusted in each of the individual and interconnected chambers to allow comfortable resistance and conformity to a wide range of body lengths, weights and shapes.
The following additional U.S. patents are of known prior art and are somewhat more remotely connected to the present invention:                U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,573 to Fiore        U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,226 to Groenewald        U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,153 to Roschacher        U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,963 to Trevino, et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,535 to Goldman        U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,492 to Simon        U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,542 to Farley        U.S. Pat. No. 6,568,015 to Allen        U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,722 to Giori, et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,865 to Washburn, et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,903 to Wai-Chung        U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,061 to Giori, et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,178 to Montoni        U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,239 to Ward, et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,241 to Higgins, et al.        U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,768 to Harding        U.S. Pat. No. 5,252,278 to Spann, et al.        U.S. Patent Des. 433861 to Rose, et al.        
In my U.S. Patent, I describe a mattress or pad similar to that of the present invention, but having loose fibrous material in each of the chambers which may be easily moved about for tailored support.
The present invention provides a mattress pad positionable atop a conventional mattress which includes individualized chambers defined by interstitching between top and bottom covers and which are filled with closed or open cell foam or foam-like material, and preferably, viscoelastic slab stock foam, a/k/a slow recovery or memory foam material sized to fit within each of the chambers supporting the head, upper torso, legs and feet into better conformity with the individualized contours of each recumbent user of this invention.